Tag Archive for 'Eckhard Gerdes'

In Ukrainian-American novelist Yuriy Tarnawsky’s new trilogyThe Placebo Effect (JEF Books), the themes of alienation, abandonment, and fear of death, developed in Like Blood in Water and elaborated in The Future of Giraffes, respectively the first and second book of The Placebo Effect Trilogy, are picked up in the third book, View of Delft, and are given a new treatment.

Yuriy Tarnawsky has authored more than two dozen books of poetry, fiction, drama, essays, and translations. He is one of the founding members of the New York Group, a Ukrainian émigré avant-garde group of writers, and cofounder and co-editor of the journal Novi Poeziyi (New Poetry; 1959–1972). He writes fiction, poetry, plays, translations, and criticism in both Ukrainian and English. His works have been translated into French, German, Hebrew, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Russian. An engineer and linguist by training, he has worked as a computer scientist at IBM Corporation and professor of Ukrainian literature and culture at Columbia University. He writes in Ukrainian and English and resides in the New York City area. His other English-language books include the books of fiction Meningitis, Three Blondes and Death, Like Blood in Water (all FC2), and Short Tails (JEF Books), as well as the play Not Medea (JEF).

Tarnawsky takes risks most writers wouldn’t dream of. Just when you think you’re on familiar ground, the earth begins to shake. His writing rocks! —Derek Pell

Novelist and poet Eckhard Gerdes will also be reading from some of his recent work.

David Moscovich’s new book,You Are Make Very Important Bathtime (JEF Books Publishing), is about an expatriate in a foreign land and his failure to navigate the awkward seas of extreme culture clash. Set in Southern Japan, it is a celebration of the beauty of misunderstanding and the inadvertent poetry of bad grammar.

“A wild and enlivening collection of stories that capture the comedy, chaos and uncertainty of living as an alien in a place just beyond one’s understanding. Moscovich is a daring writer, and this book, both preposterous and beautiful, is an unusual demonstration of talent.”

-Michael Thomsen, author of Levitate The Primate

David Moscovich writes flash fiction and performs his texts both live and on the radio, fragmenting, ricocheting, and refurnishing language until it meets its own devolution. He lives with chronic insomnia in New York City and runs Louffa Press, a micro-press dedicated to printing innovative fiction.

Also reading: novelist Eckhard Gerdes read from his first published book of poetry, 23 Skidoo! 23 Form-Fitting Poems (Finishing Line Press) and from his short novella The Sylvia Plath Cookbook (published by Sugar Glider Press in Queensland, Australia). Eckhard Gerdes is the author of 14 published novels, including My Landlady the Lobotomist and Hugh Moore. He lives in Geneva, Illinois, and is the publisher of the Journal of Experimental Fiction and JEF Books.

Brion Poloncic’s novel Xanthous Mermaid Mechanics pushes at all of our preconceptions and misconceptions not only about the self, but also about art. Artists are too often and too easily cast as outsiders, and Outsider Art has become somewhat of a commodity with so-called “outsiders” who seem to market their “outsidedness” for monetary gain. One wonders if in some cases the outsider stance isn’t merely a con. But with Poloncic, who has been called the “Daniel Johnston” of literature, we see the real thing, and it is beautiful and scary, marvelous and delightful, yet also angry, insecure, self-doubting. In other words, this is as human as it gets. And sometimes it as humorous as it gets as when, in the depths of his artistic quest, Poloncic begins channeling William S. Burroughs, who dictates a manuscript to him, or when he realizes that all we really need to get through our lives successfully is a sequence of form letters. Although it is deliciously funny, the book is, simply put, both charming and discombobulating, which is a note that rings absolutely true to the ear. Brion Polonic is also an accomplished artist and musician. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his dog Tinca.

“This book was a very interesting read. At times, the author goes on a road that I don’t follow, but above and beyond, the first person narrative is brilliant. Dealing with mental illness, drug abuse and some very bad behavior without making excuses or apologies, this book chronicles parts of the author’s psyche that most of us keep locked away. My personal favorite was ‘Schizophrenia 101’. It is a step by step guide for “new” schizophrenics. Though written with humor, one can’t help but wonder if the advice and detailed guide of symptoms and meanings WOULD be a useful tool for people experiencing their first psychotic episode.” –Kyle Muntz, Author of VII (A Novel): The Life, Times, and Tragedy of Sir Edward William Locke the Third: Gentleman.

Also joining the bill is Chicago author Eckhard Gerdes, who will read from his new books The Three Psychedelic Novellas of Eckhard Gerdes (Enigmatic Ink Books) and The Sylvia Plath Cookbook (Sugar Glider Press).